First off, I want to apologize to the two people who actually remembered I had written here (hi Mom and Dad!) for not writing anything new in, well, almost a year. Things have been uniquely chaotic for me over the past year. I’m reminded of the apocryphal story about a sultan who asked once King Solomon if there was anything that would be universally true in any situation, regardless of whether it was good or bad. Solomon replied, “This too shall pass.”

Indeed they will. It’s not just an OK Go song, although everything does sound better when sung within a Rube Goldberg machine.

Instead of posting a quippy 300-word article about my graduate school experience (sorry Mom and Dad), I thought I would write a 200-word poem about that experience. I’m not saying the poem is good; I’m saying that what follows are more than 200 words grouped into stanzas. Writing poetry is much harder than writing prose, which is why I generally avoid it, but blizzards help make people wistful and unconventionally inspired. (That’s why Percy Bysshe Shelley was such a huge fan of Dairy Queen.)

Oh, and if you feel similarly inspired, please submit that inspiration, as long as it’s fewer than two double-spaced pages, to the OHSU Poetry Contest. I believe that art and science are both cut from the same magnificent cloth, and it’s a pretty cool when the intersection between them is celebrated.

Comments

David – I normally don’t care for poetry, it’s usually just cleverly (?) jumbled words that seem only to have meaning to the poet. But in this case, I believe you expressed something that has meaning to me, too. Great! (and I am not his mom or dad!)

Glad to see you back in the saddle again; thanks for the poem! Congrats Mom and Dad — you’ve raised a very talented young man!

About the Author

David Edwards

StudentSpeak

Ever wondered what life is like as a student at OHSU? What does it take to become a researcher? Just how gross is gross anatomy? Welcome to the blog that answers these – and many other – questions. It’s students writing first-hand about their commitment to careers in science and health care. It’s honest about the challenges as well as the joys. It’s not always pretty. But it is our story. Thank you for sharing it with us. And please, let us know what you think.